When is your next Ofsted inspection?

Ofsted does not publish inspection dates. It is moving nurseries to a 4-year inspection window, phased in from April 2026, and says every setting on the Early Years Register will be inspected at least once by March 2030. New nurseries are usually inspected within 18 months of registering, or 30 months if they registered before April 2026. Nurseries normally get a phone call the working day before.

The Department for Education set the 4-year requirement in March 2026, and it applies from 1 April 2026. It is being phased in, with full implementation expected by March 2030. Before April 2026 the requirement was an inspection within 6 years of the last one. Ofsted says settings already inspected under that 6-year window move to the 4-year window at their next routine inspection.

Ofsted can inspect sooner, and without notice, if it has concerns.

This page covers nurseries and pre-schools in England. Schools are inspected under a different framework.

Ofsted’s provider pages and its inspection information give 18 months as the usual first-inspection timescale. That applies to settings registered on or after 1 April 2026. Ofsted’s early years FAQ and the Department for Education’s requirements say settings registered before then are usually first inspected within 30 months.

If the business running a nursery changes, the new provider may register under a new URN. The new registration then waits for its own first inspection, and earlier reports stay under the old URN.

After a report card with every area at expected standard or above, Ofsted usually inspects again within 4 years. If any area needs attention, it is usually within 12 months, and within 6 months if any area needs urgent improvement. Where safeguarding is not met, Ofsted’s operating guide says the setting “will likely be reinspected within 6 months”.

Ofsted says it uses a setting’s previous inspection outcome, alongside any other information it holds, to decide when to inspect next. For what each grade means, see Ofsted report cards explained.

Past data, not a prediction

Figures from Ofsted’s data as at 30 June 2026. Ofsted’s data lists 18,327 nurseries and pre-schools on the Early Years Register.

A further 61 nurseries show no full inspection in Ofsted’s data although they registered over 6 years earlier, or none for over 6 years. Some are at independent schools inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, which Ofsted’s data does not cover, so all 61 are left out of this table.

1,350 had a report card from a full inspection by 30 June 2026. Of their area grades, 56% were expected standard, 32% strong standard, 10% needs attention, 2% urgent improvement and under 1% exceptional.

A simple scenario, not a prediction

Ofsted has not published the order in which it will inspect nurseries during the phase-in, so nobody outside Ofsted can say for certain. Here is a simple scenario from Ofsted’s own data.

At 30 June 2026, Ofsted’s published data showed no full inspection dated on or after 1 April 2026 for 17,940 of England’s 18,327 nurseries. Ofsted says about 60 early years providers at independent schools are inspected mainly by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, and its data has no inspections for them. If every other nursery in that group stayed open and needed one full Ofsted inspection by March 2030, that would be about 400 a month from July 2026. Ofsted’s data records between 207 and 250 full nursery inspections a month from January to April 2026.

The scenario does not allow for new registrations, follow-up inspections, closures or periods when nurseries have no children on roll. Ofsted also inspects childminders and other providers under the same requirement. We will update these figures when Ofsted publishes its next data, usually in January or February.

Nurseries normally get a phone call from Ofsted the working day before the inspection, usually by 10am, and a planning call later that day. Group settings that do not operate regularly, such as summer play schemes, get a call no more than 5 working days before. Ofsted’s guide tells inspectors not to plan an inspection in the first week of term for a term-time-only setting, unless they have concerns. Ofsted can also inspect without notice.

What happens after the call

Ofsted decides when to inspect using a setting’s previous outcome and other information it holds, such as concerns. That information is not public, and Ofsted does not publish a schedule. So nobody outside Ofsted can tell you the date of your next inspection. So for each nursery we show two things: facts from Ofsted’s data, and the timescale Ofsted has published for nurseries in that position. That is not a prediction.

The figures on this page come from Ofsted’s childcare providers data, which Ofsted publishes twice a year. The current file is as at 30 June 2026 and shows each nursery’s latest inspection published by then. We count full inspections only; visits with no children on roll do not count as full inspections. Some nurseries at independent schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, and Ofsted’s data has no inspections for them.